The last few years, the Dutch superyacht industry saw some significant investments in more and larger production sites and refit facilities. SWZ|Maritime’s yacht special explores the Dutch yacht building landscape.
In this special, we take a look at how the Dutch yacht industry has developed over the last few years. It is an industry that is confident about its future prospects which is reflected in several yacht building companies expanding their facilities, such as Oceanco which took over the Heerema yard in Zwijndrecht and the opening of the new yard of Royal Van Lent in the Port of Amsterdam.
In addition to a general overview, we take a closer look at Heesen Yachts, a company that now builds over half its yachts on spec. Furthermore, Bram Jongepier and Ronno Schouten discuss what it will take to build a fully electrically powered superyacht. Engel Jan de Boer of Lloyd’s Register discusses what classification societies are doing to keep up with a market where luxury is taken to extremes. Finally, Sander Klos describes a market that is yet to flourish: the use of composites left over from end of life yachts.
Black Pearl
The Black Pearl, measuring 106.7 metres, is the largest sailing yacht in the world. It has many other special features, such as a state of the art DynaRig sailing system, a single level engine room and a hybrid propulsion installation. This system includes high capacity batteries allowing for a power regeneration mode when under sail. Altogether, the Black Pearl is a showcase of Oceanco’s yacht building capabilities. SWZ|Maritime has been given an exclusive look behind the scenes of this special yacht, which has resulted in an extensive description of the ship and the features that make it special.
Read the September issue in our Archive now.
Picture: The world’s largest sailing yacht, the Black Pearl (picture by Tom van Oossanen).
